In terms of social media, we often restrict ourselves with the information we post online. Most people on Facebook, for example, have hundreds of friends and probably do not share their most personal moments with everyone.
Well Path, a private social network, allows you to do just that. Dave Morin, founder of Path, describes it as a place that “allows you to capture your life’s most personal moments and share them with the 50 close friends and family in your life who matter most.” You can take pictures or video with your phone and tag people, places, or things. The pictures are then shared among your select list of friends and family members. Thus, Path creates a kind of personal journal of your life to share with the people you cherish most.
Path already has hundreds of thousands subscribers and more join each day. Google also sees the potential of Path and has reportedly offered a $100 million to buy the company, which the company turned down. Will this new social network pose a challenge to Facebook or will it work along side it to increase their number of users?
Google recently announced that it is adding a “+1″ button to its search results. This button works pretty much like Facebook‘s “Like” button. The “+1″ button will be a way to see which sites have been recommended by friends and contacts in an effort to bring you more relevant links first; click on the link to hear Google’s explanation of +1. In the midst of today’s social media revolution, it is very interesting to see how such enormous and important companies like Google are incorporating these principles into their business plan.
This announcement has been met with excitement by some and criticism by others. Some think it could be a privacy issue, others do not see the point and some are even annoyed that more things are being added to the search engine which could translate to more clutter and difficulty in browsing. The biggest concern that has been raised I think is the fact that sites could +1 themselves multiple times.
Personally, I believe Google is doing a smart thing in keeping their services up to date with the social behaviors of consumers today. It is obvious that people will believe an acquaintance’s recommendation over a random person’s. Also, nowadays thanks to the ease of sharing and things such as the “Like” button, amazing things such as deals on products or singing babies are brought to us! We don’t even have to search for them. I think this is a great strategy for Google to differentiate from its competitors and deliver better, more relevant results. As for the concern about sites giving themselves +1′s, the key here is that Google will weigh your contacts’ recommendations(+1) when delivering your results, not just any +1′s and you must be signed in to your Google account to use the +1 feature; this takes care of people wanting to +1 something multiple times.
It will be interesting to see how users will take to this new button and how soon we will see it on other sites alongside Facebook’s “Like” and Twitter‘s “Tweet” button.
Members of the social media generation (myself included) often find themselves lost on Facebook or Twitter rereading the same updates over and over. In order to minimize this, we should first understand the general purposes of these unique sites.
Basics
Facebook is a place to go to when you want to converse with close friends or family members. The feel of Facebook is personal and tailored. You can share pictures, videos, messages, and even IMs – though IMs are sometimes unreliable.
Twitter on the other hand is for voicing yourself to the rest of the world. You have fewer limitations on who can hear from you and who you can hear from. Twitter is a simpler and easier to navigate site and is used solely for communication purposes.
Personal Usage
Now, people using these sites for personal use just have to understand that Facebook is a more detailed and intricate version of Twitter. If it can’t be said in 140 characters, then put it on Facebook. Similarly, if you only wish to share with close friends, Facebook is your best bet. Twitter is more useful if you are trying to be professional. You can have a larger following, and you can get responses much faster than on Facebook.
Also, since there is a limit on the number of Facebook friends you can have, many celebrities choose to have a Twitter instead. Following an athlete such as LeBron James on Twitter gives you a more personal and real figure. A follower would know exactly what the celebrity is up to at any given moment. There is also a chance to get a direct response from our idols who may reply to a post or even retweet it.
Business Usage
If Facebook and Twitter are being used from a business perspective, then the same general rules apply. Facebook is good for letting customers and fans know what is going on in the long run. However, Twitter can be used to display things that are happening now. For example, if Trey Burton walked into Innovation Gainesville, they would be able to tweet about it right away and have their followers instantly alerted. Twitter can also be used as a marketing tool to reach new target markets. There is a feature that allows a user to search for things that are tweeted. For example, Trendy Entertainment can search for tweets about their games and then engage those users. Being accessible and personal is a way to grow your business beyond the typical borders.
(A more detailed synopsis of using social media for businesses can be found here for Facebook and Twitter)
In synopsis, Facebook is more personal and detailed, whereas twitter is more professional and instantaneous. Using these programs as tools of communication can help any person or business achieve their goals.
Thank you to all those who attended yesterday’s social media workshop at the Gainesville Hilton. A special thanks to the presenters: Eunice Coughlin from Simple Internet Strategies, Joni Kilgour from the CIED, Dominic Orsini from SeeGrowth, and our very own Joseph Grutta.
Nowadays, everyone is on Facebook, including businesses. Hence it is important as a business to have a Facebook fan page that accurately represents your business and promotes followers. Think about it, how does a bland/simple fan page make your business look: bland and simple! There are very easy things one can do, most without spending a penny, that will greatly help your fan page increase in followers, stand out from all of those regular, 5-minute made fan pages and appear professional.
1. Use a banner as a profile picture – a banner is a picture that is significantly longer than it is wider. What this does is it makes your profile picture extend down to almost the whole screen size, as shown below. This makes your page stand out right off the bat, and you barely did anything! Here is a great example: Nautic Studios fan page.
2. Customize Tabs – You can create custom tabs that allow your page to offer more than just a “Wall” for fans to write on. For example, the iTunes fan page has a “polls” tab where fans can vote on songs, movies or artists; as well as a “Video Showcase” tab. Granted the Itunes fan page has custom HTML content which will be my next point. The important thing to keep in mind with custom tabs is that they give your fan page functionality so fans have other incentives to visit and interact with your page. These tabs can also be made the landing page for visitors so it is seen instead of the wall first.
3. HTML Content - Much more professional than just text; adds a lot of credibility to the page. This step is not as simple as the previous two but it allows for many more possibilities with the custom tabs. This HTML content can be simply adjusted from your Web site’s HTML content and used in Facebook or designed for a special purpose. TutoringZone has a great Facebook app that allows for students to watch tutoring videos right on their fan page! This step may require the help of Web designers if you want something as complex as the TutoringZone video app.
4. Constantly Post & Share Content – By posting and sharing posts with your current fans, your fan page will appear on their wall, which will then be seen by all of those visiting your fans’ pages. It is also important to engage fans in discussions so they write on your wall and keep it alive in people’s news feeds (as every time someone posts on your fan page wall it will appear on their friends and your fans’ news feeds).
5. Network With Other Fan Pages - Build relationships with other fan pages and share content or interesting links with them. Help each other out by suggesting to fans or tagging ( using @ before the page name) on posts.
These are some simple tips that could go a long way towards getting great results from your Facebook fan page. Can you think of anything I might have missed?
We can all remember the Reese’s Pieces that E.T. the extra terrestrial first ate in Steven Spielberg’s classic film. However, many of us do not know how they got there, or why it was not Hershey’s that was tickling our alien friend’s fancy. Believe me when I say that it was no accident. Sales of Reese’s shot up dramatically after the launch of the film, all because the company agreed with the producers to use the now famous candy.
The insertion of Reese’s Pieces defined product placement as an institution that could greatly affect sales and growth. From that point on, hundreds of movies and television shows (notoriously, the office) have featured branded products, and with the rise of TiVo and other DVR devices, you can be sure that the number will still increase. Nonetheless, the future of product placement is not in prime-time television dramas, but rather the web.
A Branded Internet
We know of today’s internet as being plagued with banner and skyscraper ads. Not to mention the tedious pop-ups that have the tiniest close button, often hidden behind auto-scrolling boxes that make it impossible for you to escape; and those are the ones your pop-up blocker doesn’t catch. In the internet of tomorrow, these ads will be replaced by more subtle and tasteful ones. For example, the home theme of Grooveshark often showcases different products and services. While searching for music on the site, you can simultaneously see news feeds from MSN, the latest bra collection from Victoria’s Secret, or even textbooks from Chegg. Although it may not be product placement as we know and love it, it is just subtle and delicate enough for us to embrace without thinking twice about it.
Into the future
In the near future, we may also see product placement in popular YouTube videos. Of course people already see the Wonderbread and Miracle Whip brands in Lady Gaga’s Telephone video, but what about the independent producers such asSmosh? Surely advertisers have to be interested in placing their products into videos that have almost 600 million combined views. Maybe the next time Anthony and Ian (creators of Smosh) decide to do a crazy shenanigan, it will be with aNike baseball bat or an Adidas athletic cup…who knows.
We must also acknowledge that a growing part of America’s youth is participating in online gaming. This is a resource that has been largely untapped. According to Erica Brown of Forbes, in 2005, $56 million was spent on in-game advertising (see whole article here). But $56 million is a paltry number compared to an industry that was worth over $10 billion in 2004 (article), and is now worth over $100 billion. That’s right, $100 billion (article). Perhaps soon we will see the walls in the maps of Call of Duty painted with symbols of Coke or Pepsi. Or perhaps companies will continue to ignore this chance to get brand recognition out to the hundreds of millions of video game players worldwide.
Last week the Egyptian government shut off the nation’s Internet access in an attempt to diffuse the protests, but protesters still found ways to tweet to the world what was happening in the streets.
Violent demonstrations erupted across Egypt, as citizens attempted to show their dissatisfaction with the country’s President, Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled the country for the past 30 years.
Egyptian protestors used the social networking site Twitter to organize and share their struggle with the rest of the world. In an effort to limit communication and bring the situation under control, the government shut down the country’s internet access on January 27th.
Despite this intervention, the tweets continued with protestors using mobile devices and the internet connections of friends in neighboring countries. In response, the government used its emergency power under the Telecommunications Act to have the Vodafone Group, a major cellular provider in Egypt, send pro-Mubarak texts to its customers.
Google joined forces with Twitter to develop Speak to Tweet, a service that allows tweeting without the need for internet access. Users of the service can dial one of three international numbers and leave a voicemail, which will be sent out as a tweet.
In the past we relied upon centralized sources, such as television and radio, for our news. With control in the hands of a select few, government intervention was easy. The Internet fragments control of the news and places it in the hands of the people. Sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook will continue to virally spread news even in the absence of traditional news sources. And, even when browsing restrictions are put in place, there are technologies that can be used to bypass them. There is an excellent article on the blog Mashable, which describes how Egyptians have been bypassing government restrictions.
Last week’s incident demonstrated why the internet is becoming a threat to non-democratic regimes around the world. It will be interesting to see what effect the Internet will have on the spread of democracy in the coming years.
In the past advertising was one way. Sellers used traditional mediums like television, radio, billboards, and newspapers to tell us about their products and services. When content was linear, they were able to market to a captive audience and communication was only one-way. The internet changed everything, allowing for two-way communication between marketers and consumers. The internet took away power from huge marketing agencies and gave it to the average user.
According to a 2009 report by Nielsen, 90% of people place some trust in the recommendations of their friends; only a small amount of consumers trust corporate advertisements. This means that advertisers must get consumers to talk to each other about their products.
Each person has a sphere of influence made up of the people they associate with. Social media sites make it easy for people to find and stay in communication with friends and acquaintances, amplifying the reach of a single consumer. Each of these friends has friends who also have friends, allowing any single user to deliver their message to a potential audience of hundreds, thousands, or possibly even millions.
Just as social media can spread positive messages, if ignored, it also has the ability to do great harm to a brand. People will discuss their grievances with a company, whether or not the company chooses to participate. By not participating, these negative messages can become viral, attracting others with similar grievances. As more and more people join the conversation and link to it, the search engines will notice and help to deliver even more traffic to it. To prevent this, firms must demonstrate to customers that they are listening and care by responding promptly to criticism.
